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Thursday, May 4, 2017

The Ghosts In The Paintings

She has faded to a shadowOf who she wasCarrying around myriad shadesHaunted and in tearsHappy and reaching ancient yearsEchos of demolished homesAnd once stately and ancient synagogues

Her brushes are haunted with my familyRachel cries for her childrenHer little sister just criesRestless ghosts who left clothes behindBut little else Except reminders of the mindless hateThat caused most of themTo be banished to images in paint.

The painter, Gracious and kindWas a friend of mineThe Ghosts that haunted herTalk to me through her memoryI see them, hear them, Experience the cold

In visions and dreamsIf these are children of GodWhy did He make them scream.She found peace at lastIn an unmarked grave next to her husband.

I'd love to romanticize themBut their echoes are fadingThe innocent sleep next to the monstersIn jumbled burnt bones.

The rapists sleepwith the people they raped.The murdered with their murderers In uneasy slumbering dirt.

And we their children go on.Shell shocked and damaged.Consequences echoing loudTil the day when mercy and forgiveness should redeem them.

What is justice but revenge?If no one learns a damned thing?How do we hallow the groundWhere so much blood was spilledNeedlessly.

My friend she faded.Her last days in peace.She gave peace to my wifeAnd we shared blessed moments together.

Maybe our children can hallow the groundWe so wickedly profaned.Maybe our grandchildren will finally learnWhy their grandparentsCarried silently so much shame.

She still talks to me through those paintingsAlong with departed loved ones.They say "forgive them""They know not what they do.""For they are children Not given a chance to learnBefore the fires of hatred & fearBurn them."

I cannot save them.But Universe places them in time.Justice may not have redeemed them.But none of them committed a crimeBefore being sacrificed on a profane altarBy the folly of the angry and blind.

They don't need to be redeemedBut we the living do.

Christopher H. HolteFrom a poem I wrote 10 years agoUpdated and digitized may 4 2017